
Santa Barbara, California, USA
Bessie starred in at least 200 melodrama, action westerns and crime films. In the 1910 she was visiting the Selig Film studios with a party of friends, when a director saw and liked her red hair because he said it would photograph a beautiful black, so he offered her a minor role, she had no formal training on stage, as did many early film actors, she was talented and soon rose to be one of Selig's most popular stars.
as Ritta

as Sunshine West
1916

as Lat-to-nick
1911
as Ritta
1915
as Jean Silver
1914

as Sally Lattier - the Daughter
1914

as Gladys
1918
as Lydia Duane
1915

as Margaret Quentin
1919

as Starlight
1913
as Jeanne
1917
as Mildred Manning
1915
as Mrs. Ed Young
1913
as Margaret Quentin
1919

as Ada Tremaine
1925

as Maybelle Wescott
1924

as Margaret Quentin
1919

as Christabel Beaumont
1919

as Mrs. Eloise Mackenzie
1919

as Gladys
1918

as Eleanor Fordham
1918

as Kathlyn Otis
1918

as Mary Moran
1917
as Jeanne
1917

as Texas Ryan
1917

as Madeleine, Mentor's Daughter
1917

as Virginia Carvel
1916

as Sunshine West
1916
as Mary Bishop
1915
as Ritta
1915
as Elsa - the Innkeeper's Daughte
1915
as Lydia Duane
1915
as Mildred Manning
1915
as Hope McTrigger
1915
as Mary Valjon
1915

as Sally Madison
1914
as Nellie Halton
1914

as Dr. Cecil Grantham
1914